The IT Nerd

Right now, China doesn’t exactly have the best public perception when it comes to being trustworthy. That’s on display via this Reuters article where Dutch Athletes are being told by the Dutch Olympic Committee to leave their phones and laptops at home when they go to the Winter Olympics that are being held in China:

Dutch athletes competing in next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics will need to leave their phones and laptops at home in an unprecedented move to avoid Chinese espionage, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported on Tuesday. The urgent advice to athletes and supporting staff to not bring any personal devices to China was part of a set of measures proposed by the Dutch Olympic Committee (NOCNSF) to deal with any possible interference by Chinese state agents, the paper said citing sources close to the matter. NOCNSF spokesman Geert Slot said cybersecurity was part of the risk assessment made for the trip to China, but declined to comment on any specific measure. “The importance of cybersecurity of course has grown over the years”, Slot said. “But China has completely closed off its internet, which makes it a specific case.”

It will be interesting to see how China reacts to this. If they say nothing, you have to wonder why as that it implies that China is actually doing something. But if they react in an angry manner, then you might say exactly the same thing. And I can see a scenario where if other countries copy the Dutch, then the Chinese might really freak out as a result.

Get the popcorn ready.

This entry was posted on January 12, 2022 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags China, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.